Chap. V. VISIT OF INDIAN CHIEFS. 267 
nether garments made of leather, the blue blanket-coat of a 
North American from the West. A pair of gilt epaulettes 
were attached to the coat — one on his breast, the other 
dangling at his back between his shoulders — by which the 
old Comanche prince (for such was the rank of our guest) 
was distinguished. His Indian highness, however, was not 
too proud, like the other notabilities of his tribe, to present 
to us a certificate of his character, in the handwriting of 
the commandant of a neighbouring fort, which stated that 
its possessor had formerly been one of the most dangerous 
and cruel enemies of the whites 5 but that he had latterly 
altered his disposition, and, from his influence with the 
Comanche tribes, was entitled to be treated with respect, 
but at the same time with great precaution. This man 
shook hands with marked formality with those whom he 
thought to be the chief among us, and gave us assurances 
of his friendship. We smoked with him, and treated 
him with coffee, as we had done with the others. His 
features were strongly marked, — his brow furrowed with 
deep wrinkles, his nose large and arched, and over a coffee- 
coloured face his straight hair hung in numerous plaits, 
through which glistened the characteristic vacant Indian 
eye. He had his wife with him, a fat, elderly woman, whose 
face retained the traces of some beauty, and the type of 
the better class of Mexican families. This person had 
probably been stolen in her childhood ; she did not dis- 
mount, but sat astride upon her horse, like all Indian 
women, taking no part in our conversation with the old 
Indian chief. Some young females of the lower class of 
Indians, however — one a very pretty girl — kept up an 
animated chat with pur drivers, and evidently tried to turn 
their coquetry to profit. 
Amongst the crowd we saw many stolen Mexican boys 
